Your Prospecting Approach is Outdated: It needs a 180 Flip.

An Accenture report claims that over 90% of decision-makers never respond to cold calls. Recent Gartner studies reveal that the old-fashioned prospecting “spray and pray strategy” results in only a 2% response rate. That’s not much. In context, you need to make 200 dials to get four successful calls, and the quality is doubtful. When you finally get through to a customer who wants to hear what you have, what will you say or ask?

Pitching leads to poor results.

When customers have a ‘Service in Place,’ they are not interested in salespeople pitching products, solutions, or their company. They are in a Why Change? Buying phase and have no ears for any of that. It may even be fair to say that when prospecting, the more you pitch, the fewer results you can expect. Pitching as a prospecting approach is outdated. Customers hate it—and you probably do, too.

It’s all about having a connection.

A different approach makes more sense in the current world: work on having connections first and help customers with their challenges. It sounds simple, but implementing it requires both online and face-to-face hard work. It needs to be different to get your foot in the customer’s door, that’s for sure.

Connect Calling

What does such an approach look like? It is called Connect Calling, and it was introduced in 2022 here on ‘thesalesadvice’. It is multimedia-layered, full of insights, and in touch with the Prospect’s reality. It has two steps:

1. Connect Calling “The Preparation.”

• Linkedin
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Video Message
• Email

2. Connect by Calling “the Call.”

• Do’s and Don’ts
• Structure

Connect Calling “The Prep”

LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook: Take the cold out of cold calling by establishing authentic digital connections with your prospects. There are books on how to use LinkedIn effectively, but the best one I have read is “De perfecte post op LinkedIn” by Ina Boer and Franck Fielemon. It is in Dutch, but it has hundreds of tips.

LinkedIn is an excellent platform for creating an authentic online connection with prospects, but you need to use it differently than you currently do. The emphasis is on “authentic.” Only a Like on your posting doesn’t count. Instead, your Prospect must have commented on your LinkedIn post or downloaded one of your insightful articles. You must have worked hard to establish this online connection, which is becoming an online relationship. The same applies to Facebook and Instagram.

What kind of insights? Trusted advisors have an opinion on how they can help businesses with their growth strategy. Prepare insightful articles about changes you see in the marketplace, the impact on your Prospect’s business, and why you believe they should consider a change. Ensure your articles are not about you and your company. Instead, they should focus on them, their industry, and their challenges. Work together with your Marketing team to align on your messages.

Video message: This is another way of building a digital relationship with prospects. They do not know who you are, so putting a face to the name always helps. Record a video message of yourself talking about the content of your insightful articles. Keep it short and sharp. Start with the change you see in the marketplace – refer to research if you can. Then, share how this affects the customer’s current business models. And finish with what you recommend they do. Again, do not talk about you or your company. And because the new way of selling always ends with asking for a commitment, invite the viewer to connect with you so you can send additional insightful articles. Or, even better, invite the viewers to share this with colleagues interested in your insightful message.

Email: Although less effective as a first connection, it works very well as a reinforcement and acknowledgement of being connected. Follow up on any “authentic” LinkedIn connection by email. Send the article and ask if they received and read it. This works well over email. Also, send your video message so that it lands in the Prospect’s email inbox. Follow up again. Did they watch it? Did they share it with some of their colleagues?

Connect Calling “The Call”

There is nothing as dull for a Prospect to listen to old-fashioned opening lines:

• We do this; we are located here and there
• We are great; we are the best
• We have great solutions
• We are eco-friendly, followed by: “Why don’t we catch up next week on Tuesday or Wednesday? What suits you better?”

Spot the common word: WE! These introductions and statements do not pass the “So what?” test. Everything said so far comes across to a Prospect as self-focused and has no real meaning to them. No wonder Prospects react with: “No, thank you, we are busy” or “Call back in six months.”

The 180 Flip

How can you do this differently? First, flip the mindset 180 degrees. Selling is helping, so that is your message. Once you have established an online connection, continue to inspire your contact to participate in a short conversation. How would that be different from your first call before?

Look at this from the Prospect’s perspective. You have interrupted their day, so what goes through their mind? They think:

• If this is a short call, I take it.
• I don’t want to speak to someone who is wasting my time
• I will listen if they say something insightful and relevant to my challenges.

This all happens in the first 30 seconds. With that in mind,

• Your call needs to be short;
• Focus on the objective of your call: You want to arrange a follow-up meeting.
• Your message needs to be insightful for your Prospect.
• You should not waste their time.
• Don’t fall into the trap of starting to sell;
• keep your mind on the objective:
  • Your call is about helping them with business growth ideas.

Structure: To do this well, you need a script, but you cannot sound like reading a script. Hence, it would be best to practice with words you feel comfortable with. It needs to be natural. It needs to be you. A structure is your guide for those first 30 seconds:

1. Who you are, what you do, and… how you are connected (Referral – social media – your insightful article)
2. Pitch the challenge as described in your article again
3. You have ideas on how you can help
4. Your commitment to not waste their time in an agreed meeting

Connect calling works. In conclusion, your Prospecting strategy needs a 180 Flip!

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